Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent of overcrowded living conditions in private rented accommodation as well as social housing; and what remedial actions might be necessary.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
In 2015 The Government made an assessment of overcrowded living conditions in houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). Following extensive consultation, we acted by extending the scope of mandatory HMO licensing so that properties used as HMOs in England which house 5 people or more in two or more separate households would require a licence. These regulations came into force on October 1 2018.
The Government is combatting overcrowding through £9 billion of funding for the affordable homes programme; £2 billion of long-term funding certainty for housing associations up to 2028/2029; and abolishing the housing account revenue cap. This is in addition to measures already in place such as the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenancy Standard which requires social landlords to develop and deliver services to address over-crowding in their homes.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many state-maintained children's nurseries are in deficit; and what assessment they have made of the implications for the viability of such nurseries and for children's early years educational needs.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Information regarding the finances of local authority-run maintained day nurseries is not held centrally. However, data on maintained nursery schools (MNS) are published as part of statistics on local authority and school expenditure. They show that in 2017-18, there were 80 MNS in deficit. Funding decisions, including the services provided, spend and how to manage deficits, are a matter for the relevant local authority and MNS to agree.
MNS make a valuable contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children. They experience costs that other providers do not, and we are providing local authorities with around £60 million a year in supplementary funding to enable them to protect MNS’ funding.
This arrangement is due to end in March 2020, and what happens after that will be determined by the next Spending Review. Owing to uncertainty over the exact date of the Spending Review, we are considering how best to handle transitional arrangements for a number of areas, including MNS.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they are giving to introducing penalties to prevent social media operators from publishing, or failing to remove, content which is harmful to children's health and well-being.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Government's forthcoming Online Harms White Paper will set out plans for legislative measures to ensure platforms take adequate steps to protect their users, particularly children, from online harms.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government by how much local government funding has been reduced since 2010; and what assessment they have made of the effect on vulnerable communities of such reductions.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Since 2010 there have been changes to the financing and functions of local government, and therefore spending power, the measure of funding available to local authorities, is not directly comparable over this period.
Prior to 2013-14, Formula Grant was non-ring fenced money for local government services. It was funded by central government grant and redistributed business rates. From 2013-14, Settlement Funding Assessment became the way central government provided local authorities with non-ring fenced funding for local government services.
Councils will have had access to over £200 billion over the five-year period 2015-16 to 2019-20, and funding for local government will increase in real-terms next year.
As democratically elected organisations, local authorities are independent of central government and are responsible for managing their budgets in line with local priorities. However, the Government expects local authorities to meet the challenge of making savings, while continuing to provide excellent services to local communities. It is for local authorities to conduct their own impact assessments of local decisions on residents, including vulnerable adults and children.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of pupils being suspended from schools for breaching drugs and alcohol rules; what assessment they have made of whether that number has increased since 2010; and if so, what measures they plan to put in place to decrease that number.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In 2009/10 there were 370 permanent exclusions categorised with the main reason being recorded as ‘drug and alcohol related’, compared to 565 in 2016/17.
There were 8,765 fixed period exclusions in 2009/10 with the main reason of “drug and alcohol related”, compared to 9,075 in 2016/17.
Schools have a statutory power to search for and confiscate prohibited items such as alcohol, and illegal drugs. Where they find other substances, which are not controlled drugs but a teacher believes them to be harmful or detrimental to good order and discipline, these can also be confiscated.
The department has produced the attached advice for schools which makes it clear that school staff can search pupils or their possessions, without consent where there are reasonable grounds to do so. If a pupil refuses to be searched, the school may bar them from the premises.
Ultimately, we support head teachers in using exclusion where this is warranted. It is equally important that the obligations on schools are clear and well understood, to ensure that any exclusion is lawful, reasonable and fair.
The process that head teachers must follow is set out in statutory guidance, which is attached.
In March 2018, the government launched an externally led review of exclusions practice, led by Edward Timpson CBE. The review is exploring how head teachers use exclusion, and why pupils with particular characteristics are more likely to be excluded from school. It is also considering the differences in exclusion rates across primary and secondary schools in England.
The review will report in early 2019. The full terms of reference for the review can be found attached.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the amount of unpaid court imposed fines on individuals who are not able to pay; and what steps they intend to take to deal with this matter.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
HM Courts and Tribunals Service actively manages all outstanding court ordered financial impositions and uses a number of intelligence tools to identify and implement suitable enforcement sanctions against those who fail to comply with the order.
The Court uses the information it has available to it when setting a financial imposition to determine the level at which the fine should be set together with any repayment terms.
If an offenders’ circumstances change after a fine has been imposed they can request a means hearing where the court will review the amounts they owe and their circumstances. The Court may as a result decide to remit some of the amounts outstanding or change the payment terms previously agreed.
This Government takes recovery and enforcement of financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to finding new ways to ensure impositions are paid and clamping down on fine defaulters is a continued priority nationwide. There are a number of sanctions available to HMCTS and the courts for offenders who default on the payment terms of their orders. These can include deductions from the offender’s benefits or attachment of earnings orders if they are employed, clamping of vehicles, issue of warrants of control to seize goods to the value owed and ultimately imprisonment for non-payment.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to safety concerns for residents in tower blocks where responsibility for the removal of combustible cladding is disputed.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government is committed to ensuring that residents are safe, and feel safe, in their homes.
We are working closely with local authorities and Fire and Rescue Services to ensure that interim safety measures are in place in all buildings until the cladding is replaced. We are backing local authorities to take enforcement action where building owners are refusing to remediate high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding. This will include financial support where this is necessary for the local authority to carry out emergency remedial work. We have also established a Joint Inspection Team to support local authorities and give them the confidence to pursue enforcement action.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the costs to local authorities of child care provision; and what assistance they plan to provide to local authorities to help meet such costs.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We will be spending around £6 billion on childcare support in 2019 to 2020 - a record amount. That will include funding for our free early education entitlements, on which we plan to spend around £3.5 billion this year alone.
The early years national funding formula, which we introduced in April 2017 following extensive consultation, allocates our funding to local authorities fairly and transparently.
The department allows local authorities to retain some funding to cover administrative costs and statutory duties, so long as the vast majority, 95%, is passed on to providers.
The government recognises the need to keep the evidence base on costs up-to-date. We continue to monitor the provider market closely through a range of regular and one-off research projects which provide insight into various aspects of the provider market.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the value of court imposed fines for crimes committed that have been left unpaid; and what steps they are taking to recover payments due.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The amount of outstanding court fines as at 31st March for the financial year 2017/18 is detailed below.
Year ended 31st March | Cumulative amount outstanding £’000 |
2018 | 623,609 |
The total amount of outstanding fines includes impositions made in the year stated or any previous year. It includes accounts that were not due to be paid by the end of the period specified and those that were being paid by instalments on agreed payment plans
This Government takes the recovery and enforcement of financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to ensuring impositions are paid. The courts will do everything within their powers to trace those who do not pay and use a variety of means to ensure the recovery of criminal fines and financial penalties. Money can be deducted from an offender's earnings or from benefits if they are unemployed. Other ‘upfront’ compliance actions include, increased use of telephone and text message chasing and use of tracing tools. Warrants can be issued instructing approved enforcement agents to seize and sell goods belonging to the offender. Ultimately an offender can be imprisoned for non-payment of their fine.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to reduce the number of children who are being (1) referred to, and (2) taken into, statutory care.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government wants every child to be in a stable, loving home that is right for them.
One of the key principles of the legislation that underpins the UK’s child protection system is that children are best looked after within their families.
However, as a last resort, after other steps have failed, local authorities may apply to the independent courts for a decision about removing a child from his or her family where there are concerns that the child is at risk of significant harm.
Where a child cannot live at home, we must make sure that they are safe and that they receive the highest quality care, which is why we are working hard to improve social care support for such children.
We recently announced an additional £410 million for adult and children’s social care in 2019-20. We are also investing £84 million over the next 5 years through the Strengthening Families, Protecting Children programme to build on three of our most promising Innovation Programme projects, with the aim of improving social work practice to enable children to stay safely at home in stable family circumstances, where that is in their best interests.